The great euro cock-up

EU officials are today red-faced with embarrassment after enlarged images of the euro coin revealed an embarrassing gaffe which will make the currency a laughing stock in international financial circles.

The astonishing blunder first came to light after pictures of the euro were circulated on the Web. It was immediately apparent that the coin designers' bold concept had gone seriously awry.

Close examination reveals that the image placed at the top-right edge, rather than the FLACCID PENIS originally intended, actually looks like a map of SCANDINAVIA.

"It's a disaster," a spokeswoman for the mint told The Rockall Times. "It's clearly a representation of Sweden and Finland. And although Finland is a fairly convincing scrotum, Sweden does not look like any male member I've ever seen. They've even got Stockholm where the glans is supposed to be, for God's sake."

And Euro ministers' shame does not end there. Our extensive microscopic analysis of the coin's surface shows that bungling eurocrats have omitted the British sovereign territory of Rockall, a move likely to provoke military action against the European mainland.

"It's all gone horribly, horribly wrong, hasn't it?" asked the teary-eyed mint spokeswoman. Yes it has, Frenchie — and now it's pay-back time.